el Día de las Madres

What a wonderful day! Where to begin! David, Jonatan, and I joined a family from Italy along with Jose for a day at the Pereira Zoo, which just so happens to be the largest zoo in Colombia! It was a very enjoyable time...and so many animals to see! Jonatan especially loved the lion...as he stood at the side of the cage and roared at his two new furry friends as they attempted to sleep! It was pretty cute...he would hold his hands in fists, scrunch his face up very seriously, and bellow out a 19 month old roar! It was pretty convincing, if I might say so myself!

After the zoo, we went out for the llanera I spoke of in my last post, and it was amazing! Actually, you could choose from 3 different meats...one being cow, the second being pig, and the third being chiguiro. A quick note about chiguiro...Jose had said that this meat was quite good, although both Dave and I were a bit skeptical...as we had seen what this animal actually looked like at the zoo and weren't quite sure it was meant for eating. Although, I can proudly say that it is quite good and I would partake of it again sometime...I am including a picture of the chiguiro below...a little more about this animal: the name originally derives from Tupi kaapĩ ûara ("grass eater") or possibly from the Guarani word kapiÿva, meaning roughly "master of the grasses". In English, it is also sometimes called Water Hog (which is also the literal translation of its species name). Basically, they look like a giant walking rat (ok, maybe a guinea pig)...don't yah think? They also reminded me of the groundhogs that we hunted with our grandfather growing up. At any rate, if you are in Colombia and looking for an adventure in eating...this is a must try!







We had several more highlights for today, and yesterday, now that I am thinking about it...first, Jonatan had been a little irritable at different points for a couple days...and we couldn't figure out why. One moment he would be completely fine, and then the next he would be disgruntled about things that he previously was tolerant of. We were stumped and found ourselves wondering if this had to do with the grief process he is going through...well, to make a long story short...when he started to put his hand and other things into his mouth yesterday, we realized that maybe his mouth was the problem...then low and behold, on a more intentional investigation, we realized the our little guy is cutting two more teeth, and possibly a third!!!! After giving him some motrin, he was back to his normal self (or what we know to be normal so far). He is doing fine, though, and had an incredible day today...which leads me to some other thoughts...

Dave had gone out with Jose yesterday to run some errands and came back with flowers for Mama from himself...and a separate bunch from Jonatan for me. Jonatan and Mama had just gotten up from our nap and were running around in our PJs when Dave came in and asked Jonatan to come outside and help him...so they both left and then Jonatan came prancing through the door with flowers for Mama! So cute! And, so thoughtful of mi esposo! They are beautiful and it has been wonderful to celebrate my first Mother's Day in Colombia with two people I love so very much!

This is Jonatan bringing in his flowers for Mama:

These are the flowers that Dave bought for me! They are gorgeous and now I have a bamboo vase to bring home with me as well! Too awesome!

I wanted to share one more small moment with everyone, and that was tonight's bedtime. It was a quite perfect ending to a very good day. I believe I mentioned that we read with Jonatan "Me Gusta Cuando"(I Like It When) as part of our bedtime routine...the neat thing about this book is that it is in english and spanish, has simple sentences and actions that a young toddler can understand and put into practice, and ends with saying goodnight. Well, tonight, after we read each page, Jonatan joined in on charading the actions that we have made up for each...at the end, we always tell him that now Papa is going to pray...and then Dave proceeds to pray...Jonatan is always laying between us and Dave and I always join hands and give Jonatan the option of doing the same...well, tonight, before we could even get the words out to prompt him to what would happen next, he was grabbing at both of our hands and grunting along to make sure we knew what we were then supposed to do! He proceeded to put his little hand in there as well...and then a few moments later...he reached up to Papa and Mama and put his little hands around each of our necks and held on for a bit while Dave finished praying in Spanish...this definitely brought tears to my eyes. A perfect ending to a truly wonderful day...and mi primera Día de las Madres con Dave y Jonatan! I couldn't ask for more!

Ok, some outtakes for the day:

Maria Victori and Jonatan love to look at caballos (horses) together...we often spend time in the evening with our friends from Italy:

Here is one specifically for Abuelito (Grandma) Wright...your grandson really does love looking at pictures of horses...we need to try him out on the real thing sometime!

Ok, it would be impossible for us to post the 130+ pictures we have from today, so here is one very unusual bird that we got to see...sorry, I have no idea what the name of it is:

As some of you may know, I am a bit impulsive and had one of those moments today while visiting an elephant...I crawled up on top one of the fences so that I could feed the elephant! Holy cow! They are big!